Episode 19: Gravity Waves: Opening a New Window on the Cosmos, with Luis Lehner

Luis Lehner joins Justin Trottier at The Star Spot to discuss his work in numerical relativity and his search for elusive gravity waves. Since they are not scattered by intervening objects but carrying pure information from their points of origin, gravity waves would be a revolutionary new way to study everything from the Big Bang to supermassive black holes. The two also discuss future missions to search for gravity waves, like the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). Finally Lehner explains his theoretical work on strongly gravitating systems in higher compactified dimensions where exotic objects called “black strings” may connect string theory, quantum gravity and black holes.

About Luis Lehner

Luis Lehner completed his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and then held Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Briitsh Columbia. He is currently Professor at the University of Guelph and Associate Faculty at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario. Lehner received the Nicholas Metropolis Award from the American Physical Society and a ellowship from the Sloan Foundation. He sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, and he was named among the Top 40 Under 40 by the Baton Rouge Business Report. Lehner lives by advice his father once gave him, who said: “Anyone can get a university degree. It takes work and study for a few years, and then one ends up with a degree forever. But to a be a gentleman or a gentlewoman one must work on it forever.”